Multiple default gateways anyone?

[haggisnneeps]

My dilemna is this..... (and please don't tell my boss)

At work i have a laptop connected to the corporate LAN. In this same office i also have a wireless broadband router and my laptop has wifi. So when the LAN is on i'm working and if theres no work i switch off the LAN and can use the internet (this of course bypasses the proxies and content filters like Netsurf etc )

What i would like to have though, is for Outlook and messenger to use the corp LAN and my internet explorer to use the wifi so i can listen to streamed music over the broadband and still get my exchange mail and appear online to my exchange contact list in messenger

This requires having a default gateway for each interface which you can't have (probably for this very reason)

I know i can change the metric to choose which gateway gets preference but this applies to the whole PC and cannot be specified fro an app. I've tried static routes but not sure if i did it right

Any ideas?

[eyeball]

hmm, an interesting one. i think this would have to be done on a "per app" basis. however one workaround that springs to mind is a virtual pc, you could use that for internet and msn and have it use the wlan and the host machine could use the lan?

just a thought

p.s i guess this all depends on the spec of the laptop and how badly you wanna do this lol

[ringfinger]

Static routes are the only way to do this that I know of.

[eyeball]

how would you do this with static routes? if i understand correctly he wants to be connected to the wlan and the lan at the same time and have different apps use the two different connections.

if this is possible please tell us how as i would like to know too

[cluberti]

Windows does not support multiple gateways (and it works very erratic when more than one is configured, btw). The only way to have multiple paths is to create static routes using the ROUTE command in a command prompt. Just type "ROUTE" in a command prompt to see how it works.

[haggisnneeps]

you are all very correct

i have tried the virtual pc approach. it worked tremendously - except that eventully the virtual pc hard drive seems to expand beyond all reason for no reason at all.... eg:

i have 6 GB free on C and 7 GB free on D so i create a virtual hard drive as per defaults. This crets a 2GB drive. i then download a 1.3 GB file via the virtual PC and the drive expand accordingly to 4 GB. If i delete this file, then try to download another 1.3 GB file my virtual HD disk ignores this and tries to expand to 6 GB and then the download fails as i run out of disk space

It seems the expansion or the file structure in a VPC is wrong - i'll go into more detail in another thread i think as this has been a bugbear of mine since VPCs became available

Anyhoo... my laptop spec is good and i want to do it - but its a minor annoyance rather than an imperative problem

As for static routes?? OK - LAN is 10.231.x.x Wireless is 192.168.x.x and i tried saying ROUTE ADD -P <IPADDRESS OF WWW.DI.FM> mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.7

(ie al routes to www.di.fm go to 192 interface) but it doesnt work

i tried adding RRAS but it is a glorified way of routing and it didnt work but i am aware that i may be doing it wrong since i am not GOD - just a disciple......

GOD - if you're listening..... please take Mr Gates intoyour care and give us potato salad on trees

Amen

[cluberti]

You sure you followed this closely? It should work...

[haggisnneeps]

Yes i tried adding the routes s per MS SOP. I feel that is not the problem though...my routing knowledge is a bit iffy but here's what i have and what i need.....

I have

10.x.x.x LAN IP from Corp DHCP server. This is set as Metric 20. All DNS lookups go through here when LAN and WLAN are enabled (since its the default gateway)

192.168.2.x WLAN IP from wireless route in office direct to internet. this is set to Metric 25 (while both are connected)

While both LAN and WLAN are enabled, i use an automatic configuration script to get Internet access via proxies and content filters etc (eg cannot get to forums or warez or inappropriate material)

If i want the juicy stuff, i disable my LAN and untick the automatic coinfiguration script checkbox (Tools internet options in IE)

Hey presto i'm on unmonitored internet. this means though, that i'm not getting exchange mail and am not logegd into Messenger so the rest of the troops see i'm not there and since they cant IM me in an emergency they start to ask why

I need:

Basically it would be ideal if All traffic to 10.x.x.x addresse went via my 10.x.x.x LAN card and ALL DNS lookups, port 80 traffic and Internet explorer went via my broadband router (basically everything except MS Outlook and MSN messenger) whilst both connected

Is there anything out there that can do this?